Color appearance phenomena

Spatial color mixing

(Optical color mixing)

A perceptual illusion created when the visual system combines color information.

Teal colored square with maginfied loupe showing the color is actually a repeating pattern of white, green and blue smaller squares A teal color appears due to spatial color mixing of white, green and blue.

Example

Munker-White illusion

Move the slider to remove the bands of color from the image and reveal the actual color of the spheres.

Illusion

How it affects UI design

All colors on digital displays are perceived due to spatial color mixing of pixel-level signals of red, green, and blue.

Sources:

  1. Linda Holtzschue (2017). Understanding color: an introduction for designers. 5th edition. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Pages 123-124
  2. Matt Fussell. . https://thevirtualinstructor.com/blog/optical-color-mixing
  3. Nicoletta Lanese (2021). . . https://www.livescience.com/confetti-munker-white-optical-illusion.html